HANAMAKI, Iwate Prefecture--A steam locomotive built in 1940 came out of retirement after 42 years on April 12, aiming to prop up local tourism and heighten interest in recovery efforts from the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.
HANAMAKI, Iwate Prefecture--A steam locomotive built in 1940 came out of retirement after 42 years on April 12, aiming to prop up local tourism and heighten interest in recovery efforts from the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.
Named “SL (steam locomotive) Ginga,” the locomotive-driven train runs on a 90.2-kilometer route on the JR Kamaishi Line, which connects Kamaishi, in coastal Iwate Prefecture, which was devastated by the disaster, and Hanakami in the inland.
East Japan Railway Co. restored the C58-239 model steamer, which was retired in 1972 and preserved at a park in Morioka, at the company’s maintenance factory in Saitama.
"We hope (the locomotive) will serve as an engine for recovery of the disaster zone," Tetsuro Tomita, president of the railway operator, said at the launch ceremony at Hanamaki Station.
The train’s nickname, exterior paintings and interior designs are themed on “Night on the Galactic Railroad,” a popular fairy tale by noted writer-poet Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), an Iwate native.
As if transforming scenes of the novel’s fantastical world into reality, the SL Ginga traveled across the Miyamorigawa bridge in Tono, which is known as a “spectacles bridge” for its arched design.
The 176 seats of the train for its inaugural run on April 12 were sold out on the day they went on sale.
Local residents and train buffs flocked to stations and choice viewing spots all along the line, and when the steamer passed a temporary housing complex for evacuees from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, residents waved.
JR East plans to operate the SL Ginga mainly on holidays.